Mondo Knows Facts
The Red Sea is one of the warmest and saltiest sea basins
Lying between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, high evaporation rates give the Red Sea high salinity.
With few river inputs and minimal rainfall across surrounding deserts, the Red Sea experiences intense surface evaporation. Its water salinity ranges between thirty-six and forty-one parts per thousand, significantly higher than the ocean average. It sits in a rift valley formed by the separation of the Arabian and African tectonic plates.
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Tags: red sea, salinity, middle east, oceans
The Red Sea is one of the warmest and saltiest sea basins: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Lying between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, high evaporation rates give the Red Sea high salinity. The figure is taken from National Geographic, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.